Thursday, July 16, 2015

Making A Wish: Backyard Oasis Part 1

On Sunday morning Julia had two seizures. One in the lobby of our church, the second at home. During the second one she stopped breathing briefly and turned blue. We spent the rest of the day watching her closely and worrying over what was going on.

On Monday morning Julia woke up and had another seizure. I held her in my arms and prayed for the THC oil we gave her to kick in and stop the seizure. I prayed she would keep breathing. We spent the next 4 hours at the doctors office in an exhausting and emotional attempt to get her blood and urine in order to run some labs. Three seizures in 24 hours is a lot for her, something must be going on we thought. The labs didn't show us anything. So we returned home, exhausted and worried, with the plan to just keep watching her.
It just so happened that on Monday afternoon at 3:00 we had scheduled to have the first consultation for Julia's Make-A-Wish: A Backyard Oasis! We were tired from the events of the previous 24 hours but still excited to meet with the landscaping company coordinating Julia's wish.

We really haven't known what to expect...In the weeks leading up to this consultation we definitely talked about some things we hoped they would do in our backyard for Jules, but we were very cautious, not wanting to expect or assume too much. We bought this house last fall and the backyard was the one area where nothing had been updated or addressed - it's an old house and the backyard is basically a weed lot. We know there is a ton to do back there to make it a fun, safe place for Julia to play and us to enjoy with family and friends - so we just hoped the Wish would be a starting point. And we figured we would need to be ready to do a bunch more work to really fully enjoy it.

So we went into the consultation excited to hear what the company was willing to do for Julia's Wish - but we were keeping our hopes tame.

3:00 on Monday came and I actually had to do a phone call for work -so my parents came over to help Wes with Julia while I was on my call and just be here with us for the consultation. I could see out my office window into our backyard Wes, my dad and the landscaping guy talking and I was so anxious to hear what they were saying. They spoke for awhile and I could see the guy taking measurements but he was gone by the time I was done with my call. I ran out into our living room to ask Wes and my parents how it went and they all three had huge smiles on their faces.

"Laurie, you aren't going to believe it, it's going to be so amazing!!!"

"Really????What did he say? What did he say?????"

"It's going to be awesome. He said 'We are going to take care of all of this. We are going to bring the mountains and the streams to you.'"

At that point I just started crying. I couldn't believe it. After our rough days, after seizures that just shatter any sense of security you try to build, after questioning what we might have done to cause Julia to get out of whack, and thinking we should just stay home, never leave, and try to keep her safe, to have him say 'We will bring the mountains and streams to you,' felt like he understood us. Like he understood how much this means for us to have a place we can enjoy and feel safe together as a family, a place where our friends can come to us. It just felt like a completely overwhelming perfect gift.

Wes and my dad said it felt the guy patiently listened to our simple ideas "Maybe some grass? Maybe a tree?" and was like "Uh-huh, those are sweet ideas. How about you just leave this to the experts? We've got this."

All I can say is that our experience with Make-A-Wish has already been so wonderful. Their goal to give people hope is happening in our lives. Make-A-Wish and BR&D Landscaping are truly, truly giving us hope and something to look forward. This has been such a boost in the midst of some hard days.

I am so humbled we are on the receiving end of something so amazing. And SO EXCITED!!!!! More to come!